WILLCOX – Once known as a prime place for pumpkin cultivation, Arizona’s harvested acreage of the crop has dwindled over the years.

From 125 farms in the state, 56 acres of pumpkins were harvested in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2017, 114 farms produced 241 acres of pumpkins. 

Historically, indigenous people planted squash in a shared space with corn and beans as part of the Three Sisters traditional planting method. The three plants nourished and protected each other, and home gardeners still use the method today. 

Phoenix was nearly named “Pumpkinville,” according to the Arizona Historical Society. In the 1860s and ‘70s, settlers found wild pumpkins growing along the banks of abandoned irrigation ditches. But the random growth of pumpkins has all but disappeared due to development, less water and higher temperatures. 

Pumpkins, a classified squash, are known as “water hogs” since they are made up of more than 90% water, said Melissa Kruse-Peeples, program manager of Arizona State University Garden Commons and owner of The Desert Smells Like Veggies, a gardening and educational website.

Not only do they need plenty of water, they also need plenty of space. One seed can grow vines that can reach 20 feet, and two to five pumpkins are produced from each seed, Kruse-Peeples said.  

“We start planting them in July, and one of the successes to why our pumpkins come out so good is our soil and how we take care of them,” said Alan Solis, sales supervisor at Apple Annie’s Orchard. “We do anything that we can to make sure the plants stay hydrated throughout the day, especially in Arizona. It's very hot, so we gotta water them all the time.”

Apple Annie’s Orchard, 81 miles east of Tucson, is bucking the trend of declining acreage and is one of the farms in Arizona that still contributes to those harvested acres.  

Located in Willcox, the operation grows apples, peaches, vegetables and an abundance of other produce and flowers. Overall, it uses 125 acres of farmland, including its pumpkin patch.  

Apple Annie’s Orchard on Friday, October 9, 2026, in Willcox, Ariz.

Paul Pascual/Cronkite News

The farm began in the early 1980s as an apple orchard with more than 6,000 apple trees. Eventually, other kinds of trees were planted and the public was welcomed to pick fruit off the trees. In 2003, Apple Annie’s bought Hunsdon Farms and started growing pumpkins.   

This year, Apple Annie’s celebrates the 40th anniversary of opening its orchard, but it was nearly 24 years ago when the owners decided to open a pumpkin patch. Located in a valley with mountains to the east and west, Willcox provides ideal conditions for pumpkin cultivation compared to the Phoenix area. At an elevation of 4,182 feet, the cooler climate creates a pleasant environment for crops like pumpkins to thrive. 

Pumpkins at Apple Annie’s Orchard are watered by subsurface drip irrigation, a dripline underneath the soil that directly feeds crops and minimizes evaporation, said Mandy Kirkendall, director of Apple Annie’s Orchard. 

“It's underground so the water is going directly into the plant, and there isn't the evaporation as if it was on top of the ground,” Kirkendall said. “We do that to save water because we're in Arizona.”

According to irrigation company Southern Irrigation, subsurface drip irrigation systems use 20% to 40% less water than above ground sprinklers and increase the quality of soil moisture and nutrient levels. 

Apple Annie’s receives much of its water through groundwater from its wells. It owns one residential well and two commercial wells – one for each farm. The farm's oldest well was drilled 252 feet in 1977. Today its water level sits at 160 feet, according to the Arizona Department of Water Resources’ well registry. The other well is 615 feet deep with a water level at 230 feet,  according to the well registry. 

The drip irrigation system that waters the pumpkin crop at Apple Annie’s Orchard on Friday, October 9, 2026, in Willcox, Ariz.

Paul Pascual/Cronkite News

Pumpkins are planted in July and harvested in October. Kruse-Peeples said bugs that feed on squash and pumpkins are dangerous to the crop.   

“They can get pretty intense, and they can just slowly suck at the squash, the pumpkin plant, causing it sort of weakness and not really to thrive and eventually killing the plant,” Kruse-Peeples said. “They can be a challenge in Arizona, partly because our winters are so mild, and so they don't really kill off the insect populations and the eggs, and so those populations just kind of lie in wait.”

Kirkendall said Apple Annie’s Orchard does its best to use organic methods of pest control but is not certified organic because if they end up with an infestation they want to save their crops the best way they can.  

Like many farm operations, Apple Annie’s is constantly working around cost issues. Recently, they have tried to avoid using too many tractors because of high fuel prices and have had to watch out for customers stepping on vines and damaging the patch during the harvest.

“There's a lot of variables, so you have to find what works and every year we're changing stuff,” Solis said.

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.